Page 125 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

1 29 Stele illustrating the life of the
Buddha and the teachings of the Latut
Sitra. In Cave 13}, Mai-chi-shan,
Kansu. First halfof sixth century.

preaching in the Deer Park. On the right: a bodhisattva meditating
under a tree; the Mahdparinirvdna; Samantabhadra on his elephant;
the temptations of Mara; and the theological disputation between
Manjusri and Vimalaklrti (holding the fan).
Very few of the great bronze images of this period have sur-
vived. They were nearly all destroyed or melted down in the per-
secutions which intermittently scarred the history of Buddhism
in China. To see the largest, if not the finest, example of an altar-
piece in the Wei linear style we mustjourney tojapan where, in the
Kondo ("golden hall") of the monastery of Horyuji at Nara, is a
magnificent Buddha trinity which, though executed by an immi-
grant from Korea in 623, is a late survival of the style of mid-sixth-
cenrury China. Some of the smaller gilded bronze images, made
most probably for domestic chapels, escaped destruction. Be-
cause of the precision of their modelling and the beauty of their
material, these bronzes—ranging from simple seated Buddhas to
elaborate altar groups complete with stand, flame mandorla, and 1 jo Siltyamuni and Prabhutaratna. Gilt
bronze. Northern Wei Dynasty, dated
attendant deities—are among the supreme examples of Chinese equivalent to 518.